StMary’s College
YOUNG SCIENTIST
Congratulations to our TY Young Scientists, four of whose projects have been selected to go forward to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in January. Nationally only 25% of submitted projects go through but four of our 10 submitted projects have been chosen this year. The successful projects are ‘Attitudes to Breastfeeding’’by Erin Connolly and Elizabeth Byrne’s ‘Methane levels in cow faeces on different diets’.
Two team projects were also selected to the delight of Niamh Byrne and Leanne Finn who investigated ‘Power of Persuasion-credibility of witnesses’ and the trio Niamh Brannigan, Aoife Lancaster and Rachel Bentley were also very happy to see their project ‘Only mammals to drink another mammal’s milk-should we be moo-ving away from milk’ go forward to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition. Well done girls and we look forward to hearing more about these projects in the coming months.
DEBATING
Our Senior Debating team (Madeleine Long, Kate Campbell, Emily Keenan and Zoe Cummins) were delighted to win the first round of the Concern Debates on Tuesday, October 11. The girls successfully proposed the motion that ‘Ending World Hunger by 2030 is an Impossible dream’. Best of luck to the team in the next round in November.
YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH
Sixth year is a year that can often cause stress and anxiety, but Arklow Youth Mental Health Week came to the rescue from October 10 to October 14 with several events organised for the students in Arklow’s schools.
On Tuesday 11, St Mary’s sixth years trooped down to the Arklow Bay Hotel for an inspiring talk by Fergus Heffernan on a wide range of topics which all originate from the core issue that is our mental health. He stressed the importance of being true to the people around us, expressing how we feel, and never ever bottling things up. ‘We pretend too much’ he warned his listeners, and it was impossible to do anything but agree with his hard-hitting facts. But he didnt come to tell us what was wrong, he came to give us the courage to try and face the issue; a truly unbelievable story he told demonstrated our own ability to create our own ‘coincidence’ – to follow where the path may lead and thus put ourselves in the right place to achieve great things for ourselves and others.
The next day Barbara Duffy came to the school to run through the basics of mindfulness and meditation: how it works, and more importantly, how you yourself can use it. For the sixth years, it’s safe to say we have a use for a few stress-relieving breathing exercises and mindfulness techniques which draw the mind’s attention away from the exams that loom in the distance and focus it instead on the current moment. It is a great thing that a week was set aside for such a pertinent issue in the life of a sixth year, and it is widely hoped that the week will continue to be such a success. (Madeleine Long F6)
THE BIG SING
It is widely recognised that music and song have a strange power over our mood, and so it is no surprise that as part of Arklow Youth Mental Health Week, ‘The Big Sing’ was hosted in Arus Lorcáin where St Mary’s took part in the senior half of the event.
The school put forward their senior choir (the current holders of the Turner Huggard Cup), Olivia Sheehy, Emma McGeary and Zoe Cummins who performed as a trio, a group of students who performed songs such as ‘Pompeii’, and Cat Leibowitz playing the bass for Small Town Crisis who performed their song ‘Routine’. The girls then had the chance to listen to performances by the other schools who joined them on the day and it was a wonderful exhibition of the musical talent our schools are filled with. (Madeleine Long F6)
FORM 6 P/T MEETING
There will be a Parent Teacher meeting for the parents/guardians of our Form 6 students on Wednesday, October 26, from 4.15 p.m. to 6.45 p.m. in the Sports Hall. It is very important to attend this meeting to discuss your daughters progress in this most important Leaving Certificate year.